Throwing punches at parenthood

This post is the sequel to last week’s post ‘How to find a great au pair’, which took you up to the point where you’ve got some eager young person lined up to join your family in a few months’ time. Here’s what we’ve learned about how to prepare for, and manage, life with an au… Continue reading How to be a happy host family

Given that we’ve had au pairs for three and a half years, this post has been a long time coming! We are just adjusting to life with our new au pair – our fifth one – and we’ve had a great experience with this form of childcare, so I thought it might be helpful to… Continue reading How to find a great au pair

I hesitate to write this, because I don’t want to tempt fate, but given that I’ve reported on our use of time outs in the past, and taking into account the great recent frequency of my complaints (to friends and family) about my children’s belligerent attitudes, I thought that a new development might be of… Continue reading I want to be alone!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a new project I was starting, to increase the number of fenced playgrounds for Kiwi toddlers and preschoolers. I’ve since taken down that blog post, because I’ve set up a whole new blog for the project: Kiwi Play Safe. Read it all about it here. If you want… Continue reading Kiwi Play Safe

We’re back from France! And I’m currently supervising the kids as they watch TV, and hoping that they can stay awake for another two hours, at which point they’ll have a very early night. It’s a bit like sitting in the living room with two unexploded grenades on the neighbouring sofa, so let’s hope that… Continue reading Flying the friendly skies

Since we’ve been spending some time in the pool this week, while we bake in the French heat (and shiver at the thought of returning to winter, albeit a mild Auckland winter), I thought I’d write about babies, toddlers, and swimming. Baby swimming lessons have become hugely popular in recent years, and the general attitude… Continue reading Water babies